Effects of Test-Enhanced Learning on Music Skill Acquisition and Retention
Abstract
College-aged undergraduate music majors (N = 120) were participants in this study
exploring the impact of a practice performance on the quality of final performance for
dependent variables of various microstructural aspects of performance, (i.e., timing,
prosody, errors, and expressive aspects of the music), as well as overall performance.
Each participants answered items on a questionnaire to attain information regarding
previously held attitudes and beliefs about learning music and practice strategies. All
participants were given an initial study period in which they were instructed not to make
any instrumental sounds. The four different experimental conditions created reflect the
different possible amounts of exposure to the piece of music that would likely occur
during an individual's learning of the music. Results would be expected to reflect the
notion that the greater the amount of interaction with the piece of music during a practice
phase would result in higher overall achievement on final performance score.